Shipping Question.

larry merlau

Member
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Location
Delton, Michigan
those of you who have shipped items or materials , either as a favor or as a job perhaps,, i am looking for a good site to get quotes on shipping. done a search for freightquote.com and got a couple hits where the shipper got hit for alot more than the orginal quote.. i dont need that, also can one ship wood threw UPS with just banding not wrapped in cardboard? thanks for any advice given.
 
With regard to the UPS question, I was told no but they would wrap it for a fee a couple of years ago. That was a UPS store. The kicker was that the cost included your first and second born!

Bottom line, there is nothing cheap about shipping. You are charged distance, weight and volume. The other day a 3 oz. #10 (business size) envelope cost me $1.50 and I drove it to the post office! If there is a bargain out there, it has eluded me for decades. And the higher fuel goes, well, you get the idea. And shipping is a cost that some how some way the end consumer will pay. Free shipping offers are not free. The costs are just hidden elsewhere. Nothing we can do about that.
 
I have ordered wood before online.

They will ship it ups, but the ones I've gotten were actually boxed, and were cut down to meet the UPS max weight/dimension requirements.

I've also ordered a larger quantity that was shipped freight that worked out fine for me. It was banded together, with boards on the bottom that made it able for pallet forks to pick it up. The boards were 12' long. Their quote was accurate, It seemed expensive, but shipping is what shipping is...
 
Larry,

My oldest son has a foreign car parts business (very expensive boy toys---Jaguars are the cheapie cars he deals with). He does a high volume of UPS. He pays a fraction of what it would cost me. So, the moral to this story is for you to ship 30,000 board feet per week to get a lower shipping rate.

Anything else you need to know, just ask me.

Enjoy,

JimB
 
I shipped a few chunks of wood around Christmas. They were about 50 pounds each and were roughly cube shaped. I took a cardboard box and cut it to the shape of each piece and taped the fool out of it. I went to one of the local Fed/Ex/UPS stores and they wanted something crazy like 70 bucks each.:eek: I ended up going to the Fed/Ex hub and got them shipped for right at 28 each, still not cheap but better than 70. I asked that since it was a solid chunk of wood could I have just shrink wrapped it and stuck a label on it. They told me it had to be in a box.
 
thanks for the help. i can get a UPS guy at work but i dont know if that would be cheaper or not than a ups store like carol mentioned.. we dont use fed/x at work i can ship real freight threw R&L which do us well at work..will have to check on Fed/X
 
The UPS store WILL be more expensive. Think of their overhead. If you have access to a 'hub' for either UPS or FedEx, it will be less. You will probably find that shipping from your place of work to be the less expensive, if you have that privilege. Depends on what your place of business usually ships. Be upfront with your shipper. Ask for the best option for your customers.
 
And I'm sure you know this, but it's generally cheaper if the person you are shipping to is a business. IF not, it's also cheaper to just have them pick it up at the depot.

I've learned, at least for me, I'd generally much rather just go pick stuff up at the depot than have it trucked out to the house, but then I do have a pickup truck...
 
There is a big difference between a parcel and freight. UPS is a parcel service - no equipment on the truck, no fork lift, can run through sorting machines, can be carried by one delivery man. I don't know the rules, but I know you cannot have a 6 foot (or 12 foot) piece of lumber, and I believe the package must be under 70 pounds.

A freight item, whether carried by a trucker or UPS Freight or FedEx Freight is a different game - think fork lift, and go from there. The last time I got some lumber shipped to me, the dealer had negotiated a 83% discount - only paid 17% of the price I would have had to pay. Don't expect to get a good price if you are not a volume shipper.

An option that sounds attractive, that I have only used once, is www.uship.com - You describe what you want to ship, from where, to where, when, and the truckers with space will bid on it. Whether it be a room of furniture, a motorcycle, a live horse that has to be walked every 6 hours, or what. I specified a blanket wrapped piece of custom furniture, delivered upstairs in NYC, etc. Great service at a good price. I have wondered what response I would get if I specified a couple hundred board feet of lumber, up to 10 feet long, must be kept dry, 1000 pounds, etc. etc.
 
This is an area of business that i think small business could really do some work on to get the benefits.

There are many more shipping people than just the big name brands that we get to know.

In my past i have made amazing inrodes into shipping costs but it means speaking to the people and explaining what you up to and committing to a crowd that suites your needs.

There are a few categories here that one needs to think on.

You need to decide on your range.
You need to decide on the service you looking for in terms of time
And need to pick a suitable partner to meet your requirements.

Example

a) Many shipping entities have trucks go on a trip either half full or come back empty.
With loyalty discussion and a commitment to them they will give you that space at a better price.

b) Look for freight forwarder companies. Yes many do international only but there are tons of freight brokers. They get their business on the basis of volume. Not everyone that makes up that volume gets the same price.

But i think its different horses for different courses and a strategy to suite.

If you were to be shipping furniture and have a delivery date in mind for meeting the customers requirements then you can use one of the consolidators but you need to factor in the time it takes when its waiting for a shipment.

If you want to ship wood think in terms of the guys coming back or going forth with empty space or where they can add it to a half full load. This does not suite the person wanting have it next day or such. But if you think on this if your price of wood is going to be a good one then give the client the option of being more planned and getting a better rate on the wood by not expecting to buy wood next day or even 3 day delivery at really good freight price. Heck in that situation anyone needs to realise there is the element of service they paying for and it costs money. But say i am a hobby woodworker and just want a stock of 30bf of this wood and 30bft of that and 50 of another. I dont specifically have a must have it now delivery date. So if the price is right for the wood and its gonna take a week or two heck that will suite me to get wood at a good average price when freight is factored in.

In the case of a custom piece of furniture you could make sure you end the job well ahead of schedule to be able to give your shipper of choice the right amount of time to get the goods to their location.

The key i found is get to talk to the people and not some first line CSR with a stock corporate script. Freight is competitive and there is a value to loyalty but to strike a deal between any two businesses it takes a win win where both parties understand each others needs and circumstances.

I also think there are strategies here that can be implemented when one looks at a item like wood but it would depend on how committed one is to growing the business. There is no instant on a profit start up curve. Thats the thing that kills most startups. You gonna pay school feels to get a good strategy off the ground but it can be done.
 
Rob, I believe UShip.com is trying to fill the need you describe... match shipping requirements with available space for irregular LTL shipments, even with unusual requirements (such as exercising the horse every 6 hours).
 
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